An outbreak of coronavirus that has officials in China alarmed and trying to prevent a widespread outbreak has arrived in the U.S., NPR reported, with the first case stateside confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In China, the city of Wuhan, one of the nation’s major transportation hubs, has been singled out as the epicenter of the disease.
It has since spread to Beijing and Shanghai, among other cities; China has seen about 300 cases of the new coronavirus, with six deaths so far. The respiratory virus causes symptoms including pneumonia, which can be fatal.
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The virus has been confirmed in Japan, Thailand, and South Korea as well.
Australia and the Philippines have identified potential cases and have them quarantined, and Russia, India, and North Korea have begun screening inbound passengers on flights from China for symptoms and fevers.
The U.S. is also screening airline passengers for the virus.
The one confirmed U.S. case involves a 30-year-old Washington State resident who arrived on a flight from Wuhan before screening started. He did not start to display any symptoms until after he had arrived in the U.S.
Health officials say he’s doing well but remains hospitalized “out of an abundance of caution,” NBC News reported.
Officials also emphasized that the risk of the virus spreading to others is low.
However, some cases have shown the potential to be “super-spreaders” who produce higher levels of the virus in their lungs, raising the likelihood that they could infect many people at once.
In China, at least 14 health care workers all fell ill with the virus despite working in a medical environment, where proper protocols and equipment are in place to prevent the spread of disease.
It’s a pattern experts have seen before.
Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on international infectious disease, cited both the MERS and SARS outbreaks as having similar “super-spreader” characteristics.
“For those of us who dealt with SARS and MERS, it’s like déjà vu all over again,” he told NBC News. “When you see super-spreaders, you know you’ve got a problem.”
Chinese officials are ramping up precautions to try to prevent the disease from spreading further.
With the Lunar New Year approaching, it’s a heavy travel season, so it’s not just airports, either. Authorities in Wuhan have set up 35 stationary infrared thermometers around the city, and deployed 300 handheld ones, to screen travelers for fevers, according to NPR.
“Cars may be randomly tested in case wild animals, a potential source for the virus, are transported, and tour groups are prohibited from leaving the city,” NPR’s Amy Cheng reported.
The U.S. is still accepting flights from Wuhan.
However, all arriving flights will be routed through one of five airports set up to screen passengers for fevers: JFK International Airport in New York, San Francisco International Airport, LAX, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, and Chicago’s O’Hare.
